This is part of my series on the Annapurna Circuit Trek, which we trekked in late November. Check out our itinerary here. Our first day on the Annapurna Circuit began in Pokhara, the city that serves as the departure point for treks in the Annapurna region. We departed The North Face Inn early for the tourist bus station. The North Face Inn was an amazing place to stay, right in the lakeside area of Pokhara and run by the nicest family. They helped us arrange bus tickets, made a phone call to our hostel in Kathmandu, gave us advice about the circuit, and had a safe drinking water station where we could fill our water bottles. We saw them constantly cleaning the place, which was particularly great after the trek - to return to a clean place to stay. We were able to store some of the things that we wouldn't need on the Annapurna Circuit at The North Face Inn and come back for them after the trek. We packed up everything we needed and took a taxi around 5:30am to the tourist bus station, where we would catch the 6:30am tourist bus to Besishahar. Thanks to the helpful owners of the North Face Inn, we already had our tickets in hand for the 6:30am bus, which cost 500 rupees per person (~$4.59). We were told that there was also a local bus station with public buses to Besishahar, but, given our less-than-stellar experience later on a public bus, I am so glad we opted for the tourist bus in this instance. The tourist bus station ended up being no more than a fenced in lot with buses parked around the edge. There was no building or waiting room. We worried that we wouldn't be able to eat breakfast before boarding the bus, but I felt confident that some enterprising Nepalese people would be selling food at the bus station. Sure enough, there was a little stand with some tables where we each had a hot drink (tea for me, coffee for everyone else) and a pastry. The other tables were occupied by a variety of people and their backpacks, indicating that they too were headed for a trek. As we enjoyed our breakfast, the sun began to rise, revealing a clear, cloudless sky and majestic snow covered mountains in the distance. Mt. Machhapuchhre, also known as Fishtail, stood out clearly with its unusual shape. Seeing the pink morning light on the Himalayan mountains only increased my excitement for trekking. Before we boarded the bus, I ran to the restroom at the bus station, a small building behind some of the buses. Sitting outside the restroom on a bucket was a woman with cleaning supplies, and there was a sign requesting donations in exchange for keeping the restroom clean. I had left my pack with the others at the food stand, so I ran back to grab a small bill. This was a reminder that things that I take for granted in America, like people who are employed by bus stations to keep restrooms clean, are not necessarily a given in Nepal. When we boarded the bus, we passed our backpacks up to a man standing on top of the bus. He grabbed them one by one, along with everyone else's luggage, and placed them on top of the bus, within a little rectangle of railings. Then, our luggage was covered with a tarp and tied down with ropes. Initially, I was unsure how well this system would hold, but we went through some bumpy and winding mountain roads during our time in Nepal and nothing was ever lost. Our bus ride to Besishahar, the beginning point for the Annapurna Circuit Trek, lasted approximately 4 hours. At the beginning of our bus ride, the majority of passengers were trekkers. As we made our way through the city of Pokhara, some Nepalese people got on as well, until the bus was full and passengers began standing in the center aisle. The roads outside of Pokhara were so bumpy that my head hit the ceiling on more than one occasion. We stopped once for a restroom break, and, about halfway through the bus ride, the driver turned on some Asian music videos accompanied by loud pop music. I cannot say whether the videos were Nepalese or from another country, but they got progressively stranger and more suggestive throughout the bus ride. Finally, we arrived in Besishahar and all filed off the bus. Luggage collection involved standing next to the bus and trying to catch your pack as the man on top of the bus handed it down. Our plan was to cut out some walking by taking a jeep from Besishahar to Bhulbhule, since we had a limited amount of time for the trek. As we caught our backpacks from the bus, we met three other trekkers who were willing to split the cost of a jeep with us. The total amount of 2000 rupees would be divided six ways, 333 rupees per person (~$3). One of our fellow trekkers tried to negotiate a lower price, but the jeep drivers knew that they had the upper hand and refused to lower their price. I was fine with that because I had already planned for the cost of a bus plus jeep. From Bhulbhule, we began walking along the road. Our plan was to reach Ghermu, 13 km away, by the end of the day. When researching the trip, I focused a lot on the temperature at the top of Thorong-La Pass and the gear I would need to stay warm....but I hadn't realized how warm I would be at the beginning of the trek. Bhulbhule is only at 2756 feet, and we climbed to 3707 feet at Ghermu. The sun was beating down on us, we had heavy packs on our backs, and we spent a lot of the afternoon ascending. I was definitely sweaty. We spent the afternoon walking along the Marsyangdi River, which we would follow all the way to Manang. We trekked through the small villages of Ngadi and Bahundanda, up and over hills with terraced rice fields and haystacks. We passed small farms and quite a bit of livestock - goats and chickens and even two puppies. Everyone we walked by greeted us with "namaste" - the Nepalese word for "hi" and "bye" - and some people asked, "Where going?" We also walked along the road for awhile with a man who was carrying a plastic grocery bag filled with bloody meat, which he told us was buffalo before inviting us to eat at his restaurant. We unanimously decided to be vegetarians for the rest of the trek. In the late afternoon/early evening, we suddenly found ourselves trekking past neatly uniformed children on their way home from school, herds of goats, stray dogs, and farmers carrying huge loads of branches and straw - or, as I liked to call it, "rush hour on the Annapurna Circuit". For the first part of the afternoon, we walked with the three trekkers who had shared the jeep with us, but they stopped for the night in Bahundanda while we continued on to Ghermu. On the trial, we came across a trio of guys from England and Belgium, who also stopped for the night in Ghermu. None of the guys had known each other prior to the trek - they had met in the airport and decided to make a trekking group. When we came to Ghermu, we stopped at the same teahouse as them, in order to hang out with our new trail friends at dinner. Unfortunately, we hadn't yet heard the advice for choosing a teahouse - don't stop at the very first one you see in a village. Often, the main village is a little further along, containing more options with better amenities. Our teahouse for the first night was fine though very basic, even for the Annapurna Circuit. It had 2 beds per room (and one MASSIVE spider) and a porch on the upper level, where we ate dinner. Looking back, it was nice to have one night where it was warm enough to eat outside with just a fleece on. I was so tired that the teahouse quality barely mattered to me. While Ciara, Rachel, and our new trekking friends chatted before dinner, I actually fell asleep on the table. I would have just gone to bed, but we hadn't had lunch and only snacked on trail snacks, so I needed some dinner. In each town, the teahouse menus have to be approved by the tourist board and they are pretty standard throughout the Circuit, except for the prices, which increase as you go higher in altitude. The menus offer the Nepalese staple of Dal Bhat (rice, lentils, and curry), curries, fried rice, noodles, potato dishes, soups, oatmeal, muesli, chapati (flat bread), tea, coffee, and some desserts. Dinner for me was potato curry - cheap and filling. We also shared an "apple pie" for dessert. Cutting into it, we knew that the filling was not apples, though it tasted somewhat similar. Shortly after eating the "apple pie", the lack of apples was confirmed when we ordered oatmeal with apples for breakfast and were told that they had "no apples". To this day, I have no idea what was in our "apple pie". Daily trekking distance: 13 km
Total trekking distance: 13 km Starting elevation (Bhulbhule): 840 m/2756 ft Ending elevation (Ghermu): 1130m/3707 ft Costs Bus Pokhara to Besishahar: 500 NPR ($4.59) Jeep Besishahar to Bhulbhule: 333 NPR ($3.06) Room + dinner + breakfast Ghermu: 467 NPR ($4.15) *They keep track of all expenses at the teahouse and you settle up in the morning after breakfast.*
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3/8/2021 11:22:25 pm
Buy meat online from Formeat, an online meat store that delivers ready to eat meat products to your door step in Chennai.
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AuthorMy name is Alyssa Good and I have a passion for travel, adventure, culture, and new experiences! I focus on budget friendly travel, trip planning resources, and seeking out new experiences. Archives
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